New Adds to Saving Country Music’s Top 25 Current Playlist (#166)
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Don’t allow the purveyors of pop to piss in your ear and call it “country.” There’s an entire universe of actual country artists out there offering a more healthy alternative. This playlist is your window into it.
Founding Lynyrd Skynyrd Bass Player Larry Junstrom Has Died
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Bass player Larry Junstrom, who was one of the founding members of preeminent Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the long-time bass player for .38 Special, has passed away at the age of 70. A classmate of Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Bob Burn, he helped form Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1964.
Miranda Lambert & Chris Stapleton Win ACM Decade Awards
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Man, the Academy of Country Music sure knows how to soft pedal the excitement behind some of their awards. Recently they’ve been unveiling their ‘Decade’ awards, stringing them out over months instead of having an event to announce them, surprising artists backstage at gigs and shoving an award in their face as a few flashbulbs go off.
Enigmatic Songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey To Finally Release 2nd Album
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The original Willis Alan Ramsey album released in 1972 is the stuff of legend. Considered one of the very foundations of the Austin music scene that was just starting to emerge as a point of national interest at the time, the enigmatic songwriter recorded 11 original songs for Leon Russell’s Shelter label, and they would go on to be covered…
Ken Burns Country Film Exposes Holes in Hall of Fame Membership
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Something that became obvious while watching the Ken Burns documentary is a few of the egregious oversights the Country Music Hall of Fame has been a party to when it comes to its inductees. Unlike other Halls of Fame, The Country Music Hall of Fame is extremely selective of who they let in, only allowing three new members in each year.
Album Review – “Seems Like Tears Ago” by Jason James
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Boy howdy. It takes all of 12 seconds to fly by in this new Jason James record before you decisively know that you made the smartest of all country music decisions by giving this young man your time and attention. Where have all those true sounds of country music gone? Straight into the lungs of Texas City’s Jason James.
Album / Movie Review – Sturgill Simpson’s “Sound & Fury”
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Add Sturgill Simpson to the list of things in society that are extremely polarizing, right up there with politics, religion, LeBron James, pumpkin spice, and whatever else people get worked up about, with half the world professing something or someone is utter and unequivocal garbage, while the other half can’t contain their enthusiasm.
Why Are Jamey Johnson & Ron White On This Album Cover?
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Well because they’re fans of The Likely Culprits, of course. Who are The Likely Culprits? It’s a crew of seven all-star band members and session musicians who comprise some of the most highly-regarded pickers and singers in the country music business.
Album Review – Michaela Anne’s “Desert Dove”
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Recorded in San Clemente, California where the desert meets the sea, Michaela Anne’s Desert Dove looks to capture the majesty and wonder many feel while in the midst of these arid landscapes, and instill it into songs about life and love. Produced by contemporary California country artist Sam Outlaw (now in Nashville), and Kelly Winrich…
Tyler Childers & Sturgill Simpson to Tour Together in 2020
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Sturgill Simpson made his fourth appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast Monday night (9-30), and revealed that he and Tyler Childers will be touring together in 2020. The tour is said to be about 40 dates, and will be behind the new album Sound & Fury Sturgill Simpson just released. Ahead of the tour, Sturgill Simpson is playing six club dates.
Ken Burns’ ‘Country Music’ Gives Sales Boost to Classic Artists
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When the Ken Burns documentary was first announced a few years ago, the hope was the film could act like a big reset button on the status of country music, and give a boost to many of the songs and artists abandoned by radio in the present day. It has been a big boon in sales and streams for many of the classic country artists featured.
On This Surprise Zac Brown Solo Album, “The Controversy”
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The worst part about Zac Brown’s The Controversy is that it was released on September 27th—one of these “Super Release Days” that we’ve been getting more and more of recently, where there are quite literally a dozen marquee albums being released simultaneously, and ones that are much more worthy of people’s attention than this.
Album Review – Jon Pardi’s “Heartache Medication”
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It’s not that that the previous works by Jon Pardi haven’t helped define that hard country edge of the mainstream, because they have. But on his new record Heartache Medication, this is not country music by close approximation, or considering it on a sliding scale based off the output from peers on Music Row. It’s By God country.